According to a summary by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of cases that the child guidance center responded to children being abused by their parents exceeded 200,000 cases nationwide last year, a record high.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says, "There is an increasing risk that parents who are suffering from child-rearing will be isolated due to the effects of the new coronavirus, and we would like to strengthen the monitoring system."
According to a summary by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, last year, the child guidance center responded to the abuse of children under the age of 18 by parents and other guardians, amounting to 205,029 cases nationwide.
The number of cases of abuse has continued to increase since 1990, when statistics were first collected, and last year it reached a record high of 11,249 cases, an increase of 5.8% from the previous year.
By type of abuse, the most common was "psychological abuse," in which people abused their families and violently attacked their families in front of their children, accounting for 121,325 cases (59.2%). There were 12,207 cases, an increase of 11.2% from the previous year.
Next, there were 5333 cases (24.4%) of "physical abuse" that involved assaults such as beating, 31,420 cases (15.3%) of "neglect" that did not take care of children, and 2251 cases of "sexual abuse" (sexual abuse). 1.1%).
In addition, regarding the route of consultation to the child guidance center, the number of notifications from police and others increased to 103,619 (50.5%), the highest number.
On the other hand, the number of notifications from schools and nursery schools, kindergartens, local welfare offices, medical institutions, etc., which were closed one after another due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, decreased.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is concerned about the impact of the new coronavirus because the rate of increase from the previous year was 21.2% in 2019 and 5.8% last year, but there is no clear relevance at this time. It is said.
On top of that, "There is an increasing risk that parents who are suffering from child-rearing will be isolated due to the effects of the new coronavirus. On the other hand, the spread of infection is reducing opportunities to watch over children in areas, etc. I want to strengthen it. "
57 children who died from abuse About half are 0-year-olds
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of children who died due to abuse by their parents during the year up to March last year has risen to 57 nationwide, except for the heart, and about half are 0-year-olds.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has compiled the results of expert verification of cases of child deaths caused by abuse during the year ending March last year.
According to this, the number of children who died from abuse was 57 nationwide, excluding the heart, an increase of 3 from FY2018.
Looking at the details of the abuse, 17 (29.8%) were "physical abuse" and 13 (22.8%) were "neglect" who abandoned childcare.
At the time of death, 28 people were 0 years old, which is about half (49.1%), and 11 of them were born less than a month ago.
In addition, as a result of examining the cases of neglect in the past 12 years in detail, the percentage of 0-year-olds at the time of death was 58.7%, which was higher than the overall tendency of abusive death.
He points out that there are many cases in which mothers are having trouble raising children or have anxiety, and in many cases they have not undergone a maternity checkup, so support measures for mothers are necessary.
On the other hand, until March last year, 21 children died in their hearts in one year, and many cases were motivated by their parents' mental illness or financial distress.
Expert "Efforts to prevent isolation of child-rearing households"
Regarding the record number of child abuse cases, Professor Fumiharu Yamagata of Kansai University said, "The spread of the new coronavirus infection has accumulated stress on parents and increased the risk of abuse. The impact is prolonged. The risk is likely to increase further. Although the rate of increase has decreased compared to the average year, there are opportunities for public institutions to come into contact with child-rearing households due to temporary school closures and refraining from visiting hospitals. It may have decreased and the abuse could not be grasped. "
On top of that, "There are many cases where there is no contact with the outside in households with young children who do not go to nursery schools. If you are uncertain, you need to actively promote efforts to prevent isolation of child-rearing households, such as consulting online. "